No different than networks hiring Democratic insiders.

On Thursday, the National Press Club hosted a seminar for journalists working in hostile environments, specifically addressing what to do if things go wrong in a crowd.

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, should have attended.

Not so much because he was accused of roughing up former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields in March at a Trump rally. But because he’s taking a beating by a chorus who threaten to never watch CNN again after the network hired him as a commentator three days after Trump fired him.

“Ok, so I can't stomach Fox or MSNBC, and now I can't watch CNN. I guess that means more ESPN. Bye-bye, CNN,” tweeted Stuart Rothenberg, a longtime political analyst who recently left Roll Call because he didn’t like their direction.

Let’s stipulate that Lewandowski has been hostile to the press and that he’s pushed around at least two reporters, though he disputes those charges, and he might even be sexist. Trump’s former manager has a long history of being controversial.

But he wasn’t hired for his personality. He wasn’t hired because he’s a journalist who will provide a balanced perspective or because he’s a nice guy. He was hired because he spent 18 months deep inside one of the oddest, groundbreaking campaigns in modern history and he knows better than most how Trump thinks and what he’s likely to do next.

As CNN media reporter Brian Stelter noted in his newsletter, this was a coup for CNN executives. “Lewandowski brings first-hand experience running a historic presidential campaign,” wrote Stelter. “Other networks obviously wanted him to come on board for the fall.”

I’m betting there was a bidding war with network agents trying to nail down Lewandowski because he brings a perspective few, if any others, can on Trump. Yes, he signed a non-disclosure agreement where he’s promised to not disparage the campaign.

Let me point out that Donna Brazile is a CNN commentator and also a Democratic superdelegate. She may have no non-disclosure agreement because as a Democratic strategist and an official with the Democratic National Committee, she doesn’t need one. But she’s certainly not likely to disparage the former Secretary of State. Neither is it likely, non-disclosure agreement or not, that Lewandowski will trash Trump.

We know that. We expect the Braziles and Lewandowski to trumpet their candidates.

Hiring Lewandowski is no different than CNN hiring Democratic insiders such as David Axelrod, Donna Brazile ... or Paul Begala, notes Tim Graham with the conservative Media Research Center.

“I think it's very akin to CNN using Donna Brazile, who's a superdelegate, or CNN using Clinton spinners like Begala,” Graham told me. “The audience knows they are coming on as supporters/defenders of a candidate. What's too common in today's media is ‘objective’ anchors like George Stephanopoulos pretending to be objective while donating to the Clinton Foundation.”

Stephanopoulos, who is an ABC morning anchor and political correspondent, has acknowledged donating $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation. He previously served as communications director and senior adviser for policy and strategy to President Clinton.

Fox’s Megyn Kelly slammed CNN for hiring Lewandowski in a way that struck me as disingenuous. Would she have done the same if her network had hired him? I doubt it.

Journalists, in particular, seem offended at CNN hiring Lewandowski because they don’t like or respect him after working with him or reading about him.

You don’t have to like Lewandowski, and he won’t be the first CNN commentator to be labeled ‘despicable.’ CNN hired Eliot Spitzer, the former governor of New York, who resigned in disgrace after journalists linked him to call girls. There are plenty spouting their views on cable news that make me cringe.

Would journalists go crazy on Twitter if CNN hired longtime Hillary Clinton aide and loyalist Huma Abedin, who also happens to be the wife of disgraced former New York congressman Anthony Weiner? I don’t think so. They’d think it was a smart move.

We all have the option to turn the channel. But it was a smart move for CNN, which is, after all, a business dependent on increasing viewership. While they might lose some viewers, they may also bring in some who loitered at Fox and now might tune in to CNN just to hear Lewandowski.

This isn’t rocket science. It’s political theater, and you have to have big names to fill the seats. Lewandowski will do just that.

Alicia Shepard, a veteran media writer, worked with Afghan journalists and the U.S. Agency for International Development during two years in Kabul. Follow her on Twitter: @Ombudsman.